Child development stages describe theoretical milestones of child development. Many stage models of development have been proposed, used as working concepts and in some cases asserted as nativist theories.

Your baby's second year is a wondrous and challenging experience for parents and child as your baby reaches out physically and emotionally for the world beyond mommy and daddy -- to friends, to toys, to sights, sounds, thoughts and words.

In these twelve months you will see your baby communicating, identifying, differentiating, recognizing and remembering.

Your baby will probably begin to walk alone, run and jump, play simple instructive games, imitate your actions, sing and dance to music, and increasingly demonstrate a desire to "do it myself."

By the end of this milestone year, your baby will show an expanding range of emotions and abiliy to express them, show off for an audience, probably talk several dozen words and be able to give as well as receive love.

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Midwife Tackles Healthcare Problems

Afghanistan has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, with an estimated 1,800 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. Access to reliable maternity and child healthcare is limited in the more remote parts of Afghanistan’s eastern region due to a lack of infrastructure, education, and professional services. The presence of a trained birth attendant can prevent many of the deaths. Together with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and service providers, USAID’s Alternative Development Program – East (ADP- E) has ad-dressed this situation by supporting midwifery training for women from the eastern region’s isolated Nooristan Province.Shah Bibi is one of 18 women selected by their home communities to take part in an 18-month course offered by the Ghanikhail Midwifery Training Center located in Nangarhar Province. During the MoPH and Jhpiego (an affiliate organization of Johns Hopkins University) certi-fied training, the women learned a range of both clinical and practical aspects of community midwifery, including antenatal, natal, and post-natal care. The students also learned to assist with normal births and provide health education to mothers and children during house visits and to know when to refer women with critical delivery conditions to provincial hospitals.After certification as a midwife, Shah Bibi began working at the Waigal Basic Health Center (BHC) in her native town of Waigal in Nooristan Province’s Waigal District. Traveling long distances into remote mountain villages by car and foot to provide maternal services and deliver babies in an area with a population of 12,000, Shah Bibi and her two colleagues at the center are in high demand.“Before we started working at the Waigal BHC, there were numerous cases of unsuccessful deliveries resulting in either mother or baby deaths,” Shah Bibi said. “During the seven months I have worked at the clinic, there were only two cases of unsuccessful deliveries.”In addition to long distances and the need for additional midwives in the area, Shah Bibi faces other challenges. Nooristan has always been insecure, with criminal and anti-government elements. In Waig-al’s neighboring Kamdesh District, US forces suffered heavy casual-ties from attacks on remote outposts. Despite this insecurity, Shah Bibi continues her work with an increased sense of determination.“Tribal elders have placed importance on my line of work,” she ex-plains. “As a result, the anti-government elements do not target me, and I am granted access to areas under their control in order to pro-vide maternity services to women who have no other access to basic healthcare.”

Looking after mothers and babies

A worker with the international charity Action Against Hunger inspects a four-month-old baby in a 'safe' mother and child tent supported by UKaid, in the IDP camp on the Champ de Mars in central Port au Prince, Haiti.

Malnutrition, diarrhea and dehydration are particular concerns amongst young children and new mothers or mums-to-be, although thanks to the combined efforts of aid agencies, the international community and the Government of Haiti, there have no major outbreaks of disease so far.